Tuesday, December 15, 2015

For
years, oil companies in the U.S. could count subterranean, untapped oil
reserves as assets in their financial statements, which lead to highly inflated
numbers. Now, with oil around $40 a barrel, the cost of pulling it out of the
earth is greater than the sale price (at least for fracking), so the SEC is
requiring companies to remove these fictitious assets from their books since
investors cannot gain any value from oil that won’t be touched. With billions
of barrels of oil disappearing off books overnight, already tense investors are
growing more fearful of a complete oil collapse. [more...]

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Friday
was a good day for the U.S. dollar. Jumping to a seven month high, the
greenback enjoyed a notable increase in value thanks to new job data. The job
report indicated unemployment is now at 5%, the lowest economically viable
rate. The U.S. has not seen such data since April of 2008, suggesting America
is finally finding solid ground. For much of the year now, monetary policy
conversation has swirled around a possible interest rate hike by the Fed. No
one is certain of a rate increase in December, but the futures market indicates
a 75% chance, while financial experts range from skeptical to near certain. I
wrote earlier in the year that America should wait on the Fed rate, and the
country was not yet on sure footing. New job data, especially in the face of
global economic conditions, suggest we might finally be back on track.[more...]

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

The
major U.S. stock market indices - the S&P 500, the Dow and the NASDAQ -
each fell almost exactly 14% from recent summertime highs to August lows,
culminating in a rapid spike downward on August 21st, 24th, and 25th. Each
index promptly rebounded, then stabilized in a classic double-bounce chart
pattern. It's important to understand several things about this stock market
correction... [more...]

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Chinese ownership of U.S. Treasury bonds stood at
7.2% last October with total foreign ownership of Treasuries at 34.4%. "The
worst case would materialize if the largest holders decided to sell their
Treasury securities at the same time," writes Mike Patton at Forbes. Let’s talk about that. There are
several reasons that China might sell U.S. Treasuries; and make no mistake -
such an action could cause a big bond market correction, the likes of which we haven't seen
since 1994. [more...]

Global
equities saw their sharpest fall since the 2008 financial crisis on what's
being referred to as "Black Monday" - as an 8% rout in Chinese shares
sparked worldwide panic. This sudden market volatility comes as no surprise to
those who have read our latest book, DON'T
BANK ON IT! or any of our previous five books or ten white
papers on the subject in recent years. The U.S. stock market has been
"levitated" and "rigged" by the Fed's zero interest rate
policy (ZIRP) as "easy money enriched many stock market speculators in the
casino of Wall Street, which has gone up while the real business economy
wallowed or declined. The Fed has been a pusher, willing and able to give the
stock market its needed fix of easy money. [more...]

What's going on with China? For starters, China
devalued its currency recently. That alone should not cause a stock
market crash. But, for some investors, the devaluation signaled that
China's economic growth and economy might be slowing down. Because China
has such a large impact on the global economy, this action spurred fears that
the entire global economy might get hit and there might be a global economic
slowdown. The Shanghai Composite in China fell 8.5% on Monday - a
negative sign. That adds to concerns for investors. How does currency
devaluation impact other markets around the world? When China has to pay
more for goods and services, it has to cut back on goods and services; there is
less money in people's pockets, so-to-speak. If China, overall, buys less
actual goods and services, trade revenues to other countries will decline, thereby
impacting the global economy.[Go here for a complete analysis...]

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

China devalued the yuan this month - an action
which significantly affects worldwide companies that seek to sell their
products in China. A currency devaluation means that it will now be more
expensive for Chinese companies and citizens to purchase foreign goods. All
sudden economic and geopolitical changes cause stock market
volatility. It’s time to circle the wagons. My suggestion is
to move away from Dow-invested stock mutual funds, toward S&P 500 and
NASDAQ stock mutual funds.[more...]

Markets
reeled last week as China doubled down on its latest attack on America. Embroiled
in a currency war in effect that cost the U.S. GDP $430 billion in just the
last 12 months, China upped the ante and conducted their strongest attack on
America yet by breaking international law and performing the largest currency
devaluation in two decades – all in just two days. Economic reports for the
month of July 2015 revealed that China's exports were down by $10 billion.To counter that loss, China has illegally
interfered with foreign currency markets, artificially dumping the value of its
currency, (the Yuan).Already devalued
by nearly 40%, this latest currency manipulation make it nearly impossible for
American products to compete against artificially cheapened Chinese products. [more...]

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Today
Social Security and its related benefit programs, Medicare and Medicaid, are
running short of money – and are in real trouble. Social Security Disability
Insurance (SSDI) is expected to run out of money in 2016.President Obama's administration relaxed its
qualifications, and SSDI beneficiaries increased by 50 percent, to more than 10
million. This is almost as many as have full-time jobs in all of manufacturing.
Social Security was supposed to keep Americans safe from old age poverty – but
Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are rapidly running out of money.Its rising taxes on younger workers might
soon drive them into poverty and leave millions unable to retire. [more...]

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

After
17 hours of negotiation, Greece accepted a bailout plan to the tune of €86
billion euro. The settlement set forth by Greece's three creditors, "the
troika," is harsh, but it needs to be. European Commission, IMF, and ECB
officials are wary of Greece's commitment to repaying debt, and structured a
deal which left very little room for Greece to wiggle out. If Greece avoids its
required payments, or deviates from the settlement, near-automatic spending
cuts will be activated. Greek parliament votes on the settlement this week -
the three creditor institutions will then formalize and institute the plans.
Here are the key points to the settlement package: Greece must simplify its tax
code and expand its VAT. To mitigate the negative effects of widely increasing
taxes, €35 billion euro from the EU will become available for economic
stimulus. [more...]

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

As
the United States Senate prepares to call a vote on granting President Obama
Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority to finalize the Trans Pacific Trade
Agreement, (TPP), the Coalition for a Strong America submitted a strong
warning to Congress that currency manipulation must be addressed in any trade
agreement: "The Obama Administration's refusal to address currency
manipulation is stunning, considering most of the TPP partners are IMF currency
manipulation violators. If TPP does not address currency manipulation,
there is simply no way TPP can honestly be called a free trade agreement"
said Michael Bowen, the organization's National Co-Chair and Reagan Committee
inductee. The Coalition letter will be circulated to Members of Congress this
week as Congressional leadership attempts to bring Fast Track Trade Authority
to a vote. [more...]

Have
the Greeks just manipulated democracy to commit suicide - or to kill the Euro
currency, destroy a united Europe, and undermine America's economy as well? On
Sunday, July 5, Greeks voted "no" by roughly 61 percent in a national
referendum to, as the New York Times
put it, "reject bailout terms in rebuff to European leaders." In
fact, European leaders had said that their offer to rescue a Greece drowning in
debt would automatically end at midnight on June 30 if Greece failed to make a
required debt payment. The ruling radical leftist Syriza Party called for this
strange vote on a European bailout offer that had already been withdrawn five
days earlier. By voting "no," Greeks could have been voting either "yes"
or "no" to accept a conditional European bailout. And to further tilt
the outcome, Syriza violated the traditional ballot order in yes-no votes by
making its preferred "no" the first, not customary second, box to
check on Sunday's ballot. [more...]

The
Windy City has done the Beatles' "Taxman" lyrics one better by going
after streaming concerns, which happen to include Netflix, Spotify, Xbox Live
and Apple Music, among others. As brick-and-mortar retail outlets are on the
decline and costs of online services are on the rise, cash-strapped
municipalities burdened with upside down financial statements have been eyeing
the Internet for some relief. Chicago appears to have taken the lead with its
virtual raising of the price of cloud services via a new tax assessment. Since
the city is facing a massive budget shortfall, largely due to pension payment
obligations, the financially troubled city in an expansion of its "amusement
tax" is imposing a nine percent tax on any activity that involves "watching
electronically delivered television shows, movies or videos" (Netflix), "listening
to electronically delivered music" (Spotify, Apple Music), or "participating
in games, online or otherwise" (Xbox Live). [more...]

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Saturday,
Greek officials walked away from debt negotiations and announced a
referendum vote for July, 5th on the proposed debt repayment plan. In the
interim week, Athens imposed strict capital controls. Today, Greece is due to
pay the IMF 1.6 billion euro; however, default here seems likely. The Greek
appear to be divided on accepting the EU's bailout plan: with it will come
a salvaged economy, albeit with increased taxes and cuts to their much-loved
pensions; but without it, Greece could be forced off the euro, and possibly out
of the EU itself. Monday, with news of shuttered Greek banks, markets across
the world opened in the red. Investors in U.S. markets were only slightly
cooled by Greek worry, with the Nasdaq, Dow, and S&P 500 all opening about
.7 percent down. European indices faced losses greater than the U.S., (2-3
percent declines) but overall, no major economic turmoil. In
this time of economic worry, investors are moving away from volatile equity
markets and parking assets in stable U.S., UK, and German bonds, all of which
have seen an increase in price, and inversely proportional drop in
interest rates. [more...]

Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is a piece of
legislation that transfers Constitutional negotiation powers from Congress to
the President who may use this power to negotiate any international trade
agreement with any partner he chooses over the next few years (including Iran
and Cuba) and to negotiate the agreements in any way the President sees
fit. Under TPA, Congress agrees to give
up in advance the ability to change any existing or future trade agreement,
even before Congress has actually read the agreements. Instead, TPA requests the
President consider 150 'negotiating objectives' on which Congress
would like the President to 'make progress.'
The President is not required to actually accomplish any of these
objectives and may ignore those requests at will. In fact, the 2015 TPA bill makes clear that failure to
achieve or make progress on any of the negotiating objectives shall not be
cause for Congress to revoke trade authority from the President.Worst of
all, by giving up its ability to amend or change any related laws and
regulations, the President and the World Trade Organization decide to impose on
the U.S.; Congress is also transferring its law-making powers to world courts. [more...]

I
recently wrote about the Trans Pacific
Partnership (TPP) trade agreement's Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision, in a letter to
the Colorado Statesman, Say 'NO' to ISDS: Vote 'NO' on TPP. ISDS
represents an unprecedented ability for foreign companies to sue U.S. states
and municipalities in global courts, completely bypassing the U.S. justice
system. Now that we've seen the U.S. Supreme Court's willingness to trample
states' rights via their recent decision on gay marriage, the reality of
potential ISDS lawsuits trampling U.S. sovereignty becomes bone-chilling.
Don't let the Obama administration throw Anytown U.S.A. under the bus! Tell
Congress to vote "NO" on the TPP.[more...]

Greece,
the Euro currency and Europe's entire economy may be slipping into chaos and
dragging us down with them. After a fearful weekend that emptied the cash from
almost half their nation's ATM machines, Greeks on Monday morning found their
stock exchange and banks CLOSED and their accounts inaccessible (except for €60
per day ATM withdrawal starting Tuesday). Greece may have just reached the
breaking point to which we are headed in the U.S. – a once-free market nation
where banks are now required to report you to the government for making any
unusual withdrawal; where banks may now refuse to let you withdraw your account
in cash; and where carrying more than a small amount of cash might lead to
government confiscation of your money via asset forfeiture laws. [more...]

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

The
recession of 2008 greatly impacted economies across the world. In the seven
years following the crash, markets lifted themselves back towards prosperity
with varying degrees of success. One of the fastest recovering globally
significant economies is that of the United States, and while there still
remains years of work, we are faring much better than certain European
counterparts. One of the hardest hit and slowest to recover is Greece, which is
an anchor weighing down the recovery of the euro zone. As a result of the
United States’ success and Europe’s sluggishness, the U.S. dollar is rallying
against the euro, coming within a few cents of parity. [more...]

How
much cash can you now withdraw from your bank and carry in America without risk
of being arrested, or of having your assets seized, merely for possessing money
in this liquid form? The ominous answer is that carrying even one dollar in
cash might give the government a pretext for such actions. Once upon a time,
this question usually mattered only at the border. People were required to
declare if they were carrying more than $10,000 in cash or negotiable
instruments when entering or leaving the United States. Failure to make a
truthful declaration to U.S. Customs can result in the forfeiture of the money
a person is carrying. Today, because of anti-racketeering RICO statutes and the
2001 Patriot Act, your bank is required to notify the federal government if you
deposit or withdraw $10,000 or more in cash. In effect, your bank is required
to spy on your financial life in this way for the government. [more...]

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

One
way to avoid losing money is to diversify, and not just in the type of stocks
you own. I am invested in the stock market, real estate, and many different
businesses. Even within my different investments, I maintain diversity. Whether
you choose to invest in yourself through your business or in the market through
an advisor, be sure to trust but verify. You should be able to have complete
confidence in either your advisor’s expertise or in your own knowledge about
the workings of your business. After all, the only way to combat uncertainty in
your investments is to have a good understanding of your markets and spread out
your assets. All routes of investment have great potential for success, but no
one investment is worth the risk of losing everything, however lucrative it may
seem. I detail more pertinent business tactics in my award winning and
best-selling book, "Sell Your Business For More Than It's Worth."
[more...]

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

On
May 6, 2010, the New York Stock Exchange suffered what came to be called the "Flash
Crash," when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted unexpectedly by
nearly 1,000 points in only minutes. A single Sell order valued at
approximately $4.1 billion purportedly set off a cascade of computerized
buy-and-sell programs around the world that are designed to respond
immediately, and without consulting human beings, to key changes in market
prices. As each major trading computer reacted, it could have triggered
programmed reactions in similar computers. Some want to believe that enough
circuit breakers have been added to stock trading to prevent an
economy-shattering crash like the one that cost traders more than a trillion
dollars in only a few minutes five years ago. But a violent sell-off in stocks
on February 29, 2012 was in its own way even more frightening – because
evidence suggests that it was driven by a powerful intelligence that was not
human. [more...]

Friday, May 15, 2015

What
Obama is doing to the economy, jobs, free markets, capitalism, and the greatest
middle class in world history is a crime so vile it makes Bernie Madoff look
like a small-time, amateur pickpocket.

The
economy is a disastrous mess. But you wouldn't know it from the headlines
released by the mainstream media. For instance, take the jobs report that came
out on Friday. This could be the biggest case of fraud and misrepresentation
since Obamacare. Let's pick Friday's jobs report apart, piece by piece. [more...]

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The student loan
bubble has ripened to such an extent that over 7 million debtors were in
default as of mid-2014 and they're holding on to over $100 billion in
outstanding debt. Consequently, both private and federal lenders are exploring
a variety of tactics to collect outstanding payments. Those payments, after
all, represent forecasted revenues that never arrived. One such tactic employed
by the Education Department is engaging private debt collectors to bring in
borrowed money. While they often rely on unethical (and illegal) pressure
tactics to coerce borrowers to start paying, these glorified bounty hunters
have earned over $1.6 billion in commissions and bonuses from 2010 – 2013.
Still, when engaging debt collectors just doesn’t cut it, many states resort to
other, more punitive means. 22 States have passed litigation that permits them
to suspend professional and/or driver's licenses of student loan defaulters.[more...]

Your U.S. Federal taxes are due. The
average work week is over 40 hours now, and the IRS has decided to veer from
its job description and play the role of U.S. job creator as well, after
requesting funds for 9,000 new positions that would work to enforce Obamacare
regulations. These additional jobs will count as added Gross Domestic Product
(GDP), which means more people working on taking rather than making something
useful like a service or product, which means someone - you, a U.S. citizen -
will be taking on the burden of financially covering the expenses via
heightened taxes. Each year the IRS makes changes to the tax code, and this
year is no exception. One out of every four businesses will be affected by the Affordable Care Act. For those businesses or individuals that do not
offer private insurance, market insurance, or any type of qualifying insurance
at all, they will be required to pay the dreaded fine. However, despite
proposals for ongoing increased costs, there are ways to bypass and cash in on
the ultimate tax refund.[more...]

Tax Day, April 15, reminds us of
just how overtaxed we have become and how a circular cage of taxes on earning,
spending, investing and saving is being created to snare us. If you earn money
to live on, you face income taxes nationally as well as from 41 of the 50
states. If you buy anything, you face sales taxes in all but five states – and
some local sales taxes in those five. In D.C., politicians now talk
enthusiastically about imposing a national European-style sales tax, an
easily-increased Value-Added Tax (VAT) to soak both companies and consumers. If
you invest what little money you have left after paying all your other taxes,
get ready to pay capital gains taxes, which the current administration aims to
increase.
[more...]

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Entrepreneurs
dream of the day they can call themselves business owners. They want to grow
their ideas into tangible results, be their own boss and obtain financial
freedom. However, the reality is that many of these individuals end up creating
another job for themselves in which to work, rather than a business that works for them. The biggest mistake business
owners make is that they do not plan their exit strategy. Most business owners
decide to sell upon the occurrence of a catastrophic event, in which case their
business is typically trending downward. The BEST time to sell is when your
company is thriving, not dying. [more...]

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

The
recent Republican budget proposal to slash student aid by $150 billion
represents an egregious elimination of vital support for our higher education
system. The United States faces $1.3
trillion in outstanding student debt, a three-fold increase in tuition cost
over the past 30 years, and an increasingly competitive labor market for college
graduates. These variables have created
an environment in which a college education is increasingly necessary in order
to achieve the "American Dream," now that a college education is becoming
less accessible than ever before.

The
higher education system is evolving, yes, but cutting off access to the
lifeblood of our economy and workforce at this pivotal inflection point may
cause irreparable harm to our rising generation of producers and creators. The recent proposal in Congress includes
cutting Pell Grants by $90 billion, slashing in-school interest subsidies by
$34 billion, and eliminating benefits and safety net programs for borrowers by
$27 billion. To establish the severity
of these proposed cuts, the Pell Grant used to cover 80% of college costs in
1975, and is projected to cover only 20% by 2025. It helps put 9 million students through
school each year. That means that while
the purchasing power of the Pell Grant is already organically deteriorating
based on inflation and rising tuition costs, the government is accelerating its
extinction by actually reducing the size of the Pell Grant fund itself. That alone is like a double whammy hit to
college accessibility.

We cannot sit back and allow this to happen.These programs are integral to the success of
our nation.Education is a portal to
achievement and fundamental to our people’s evolution.We must put an end to these proposals and
unite in support, not abandonment, of our nation’s students.If you agree, please show your support by
signing the Student PIRGs petition: bitly.com/helpsavestudentaid. [more...]

Thursday, March 19, 2015

How did political appointees take
control of our economy? Can we ever find our way back to free markets and
honest money? Would
the Federal Reserve keep a key interest rate at or near zero, continuing to
give free money to the biggest corporations and banks, the casino known as Wall
Street, and the growing federal government? Business networks counted down to
the economy-shaking Fed announcement: the easy cash will keep coming until at
least June – and perhaps until 2017. [more...]

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

When it comes to wills, most people procrastinate. They say, "I’ll get to that later,"
"I don’t have enough money to worry about," or "It’s way too
expensive." Most recently a colleague of mine quoted an appalling
statistic - appalling because for over 30 years I have been calling out to
America through radio, television, newspapers, seminars and the Internet, to
get their legal/financial affairs in order. The statistic he quoted was that in
2014, 72% of all the deceased in America passed away without so much as a
simple will. Was he accurate? I have no reason to believe he wasn’t
but if even only half of his statistic was true, the number is stunning. The
reality is that procrastination is a decision - to allow the government, the
courts and attorneys to determine the what, who and how of the distribution of
your assets and even the guardianship of your children. [more...]

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

A
few things are certainly true today: President Obama is finally seeing approval
ratings teetering around the 50/50 level recently – which is great for him.
This is worth about as much as saying that progress is underway in the fight
against poverty in third world countries – which is true, it’s just happening
excruciatingly slowly; and it depends on who you ask or where you go to obtain
that information. Complicated problems aren’t they? And by the end of the day, it all feels like
a bunch of smoke and mirrors. Instead of betting on policy changes, luck, or
the existing plan working to perfection thus necessitating no changes of any
kind, perhaps alternatives should be considered. My alternative is to create
your own economy. [more...]

The
reality of falling gas prices has finally hit home. It is not 1973 when the
bulk of every dollar put into the tank went to a Sheik who could care less
about the well-being of the American public. It is now 2015 when about 80% of
gasoline fill-ups stay in the continental United States and the Sheik be d____d.
Being energy self-sufficient is a wonderful thing and will probably be touted
by the President in his SOTU address. Unfortunately self-sufficiency brings the
need for a profit margin to sustain the business AND everything else that
has grown up around it. $45.00 oil doesn't
cut it. [more...]

In
his "State of the Union" speech, President Obama recalled his
campaign promise to "rebuild our economy on a new foundation." He
offered few specifics Tuesday night, promising instead to "in two weeks...
send this Congress a budget filled with ideas that are practical, not partisan."
In previous years he had spoken of his plan to "fundamentally transform"
the United States, and to "Joe the Plumber" of his belief that
America works best when we "spread the wealth around." White House
media allies reported that Mr. Obama has been planning to increase federal
expenditures by at least 7 percent, despite a national deficit that has grown
by an astonishing $7.5 trillion since he became president in 2009. As with
Obamacare, "Doc Barack" apparently still believes in the collectivist
progressive notion that government can create health, wealth and happiness by
prescribing ever-greater doses of the hallucinatory, addictive drugs of taxing,
spending and borrowing. [more...]

Everywhere we turn in the media, we hear the lie that the
Obama economy is in "recovery." Now it appears that Hillary has
bought into this great lie. The word is that Hillary is about to tie her
presidential campaign to Obama’s economic policies. Why? Because for the first
time she believes the economy is in "recovery." She is no longer
afraid or embarrassed to support Obama’s policies. Where are the GOP leaders to
rip this narrative to shreds? Are they so blind, deaf and dumb that they have
no idea there is no recovery for the
middle class? There is only misery and poverty. Do Republican leaders believe
the lies and propaganda spewed by Obama, his socialist cabal and the biased
leftist media? It’s so easy to attack the lies and rip the "good news"
to shreds.
[more...]

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

More
taxing and more spending is precisely the wrong
strategy to take in this anemic recovery with over 92 million people who are
not working. I might add that the administration's third leg of their
strategic policy triad, namely a whole lot more regulating of the American
economy, is also counter-productive and a boat anchor on economic growth. Increasing
capital gains tax rates is a roadblock to economic growth. In examples
throughout the last century, we know that lower capital gains tax rates act as
an incentive to capital formation and investment, new business formation, new
products and services, and new jobs. Ultimately and ironically, even
government revenues get a boost with a more robust economy with lower marginal
capital gains rates. [more...]

Thursday, January 8, 2015

A
new era is upon us. Recently Dish
Network announced their newest project that will be cutting ties with cable
lines. The new Internet streaming service is called Sling TV, which will give
users programming from a package of channels, including ESPN, for $20 a month.
The appeal of watching live sports is what keeps many in the loop with pay TV.
But that was then and this is now. Although CBS and HBO have recently also cut
their ties with cable contracts, Sling TV is the first service from an actual
cable - technically satellite - company to get in the game. Better watch out
Netflix. It looks like it’s time to up your game. Netflix may have a great
thing going for them, but only cable providers such as AT&T U-Verse offer
on-demand accessibility to the box office’s most recent movie releases. [more...]

Inflation,
whether determined by core, headline, or the feds' own internal measurement, is
not approaching the cyclonic days of yesteryear. As a matter of fact, the world
in general, and the U.S. in particular, cannot even get the rate to a paltry
2%. That's paltry by the '70's standards. Mortgage origination is at all-time
lows. Oil has dropped 55% in 6 months. The housing market's post '08 bubble now
seems to have sprung a leak. The only jobs being offered are minimum wage.
Mainstream media says rates will rise by mid-summer. The economic gang of 68
(those who unanimously predicted 4% 10-year treasuries by the end of 2014) say
increases could be sooner. Even the fed heads are saying "lackluster
inflation won't prevent a rate hike." So, why raise rates? [more...]

Although
the consumer sentiment in the U.S. alone appears to be on the rise,
Thanksgiving and Christmas retail sales were lackluster at best and the season
was carried by online sales at best. Unemployment is down and the stock
market up. It all looks good for 2015. But wait... the world is uncertain
due to the withdrawal of American leadership abroad. If you think Greece
caused a worldwide panic, wait until sanctions in Russia really take hold and
the imminent backlash there. Buy beltway bandits or defense stocks with a
focus on cyber security - they will do well. [more...]